


Trouble in Twin Town

by reedpayne



Series: Coldatom Week 2016 [3]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Earth 2, ColdAtom Week 2016, Earth 2 AU, M/M, Misunderstandings, Not Canon Compliant, aka lisa snart is the mayor, coldatom, day three, i changed the spelling of sydney for reasons, len is the mayor's brother, ray and sydnie are twins, ray is a criminal mastermind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2016-04-28
Packaged: 2018-06-05 00:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6682525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reedpayne/pseuds/reedpayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray doesn't exactly hate his twin brother, per se, he just doesn't really like him all that much, if he's been one hundred percent honest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trouble in Twin Town

**Author's Note:**

> coldatom week day three prompt: earth 2 au
> 
> anonymous said: Earth 2: He may be a criminal mastermind, but Ray Palmer still has a big heart, so when he finds out his twin brother's planning on standing up a blind date - Ray goes instead. To apologise... and okay, maybe he forgets to introduce himself. And okay, /maybe/ two weeks later he's in Len's phone as 'Syd' and he's not sure how to get out of the hole he's dug himself. But he went in with good intentions dammit.
> 
> by this point, just expect all of these to be like a day late. this time i'm only an hour late, at least, as it's only been thursday for an hour here! 
> 
> also, to the anon: thank you so much for the prompt! i hope i did it justice for you!

Ray doesn't exactly hate his twin brother, per se, he just doesn't really like him all that much, if he's been one hundred percent honest.

They've never exactly gotten along very well, even when they were sharing a womb. If asked, their mother would go on and on about how they spent the entire nine months shoving each other around, each trying to make more room for himself and less for the other. Each time he hears the stories, Ray can't help but roll his eyes in exasperation, though a tiny part of him actually believes them, at least a tiny bit.

In Ray's defense, Sydnie has always been jealous of him. He was easily the smarter twin, always making A's with ease while Sydnie struggled to make D's. Things did balance out, of course - while Ray had the smarts, Syd had always been the sportier twin. He picked up new sports in minutes, like he was born to play every single sport known to man.

Nobody saw it coming when, as adults, Ray turned out to be the so called 'evil' twin. While Sydnie went on to pursue a career in Hockey, his favorite and best sport by far, Ray was the one to turn to a life of crime. By the time the boys turned 21, Ray was already the number one crime lord in Central City, a title he was quite proud of.

He's really not evil, Ray will insist if asked, he just doesn't like to follow rules. He really can be a nice guy when he wants to be, which is exactly why he's currently in this rather sticky situation.

TWO WEEKS AGO

It's Tuesday night, and that means Ray is at his mother's house for their weekly family dinner, something she had insisted they do every single Tuesday night since he and Sydnie had both moved out to pursue their careers.

Tonight is his favorite, spaghetti with meatballs, so he busies himself with stuffing his face while Syd and their mom do all the talking instead.

"How's your week been, dear?" their mother asks. Ray is sure she and Syd have talked on the phone at least three times since they last saw each other, but he doesn't say anything to stop the small talk.

"It's been fine. We've been having a ton of extra practices, getting ready for the next playoff game against the Stars," Syd explains after swallowing a huge bite and taking a sip of his water. "I'm supposed to go on another blind guy tomorrow night, but Jack called and asked if I'd go see the new Captain America movie with him, so I'm probably going to ditch it and go with him instead."

"Sydnie Christopher, don't you dare!" their mom scolds, giving Syd her best stern look. "If you're not going, at least call the person first and tell them! It'd be terribly rude of you to just ditch them without a word of warning."

"Yeah, yeah," Syd drawls with a roll of his eyes. "Don't worry, I'll text the guy. It's not like it's a big deal, we were just gonna meet at Jitters and get some coffee."

"I don't care, you are going to call that boy and reschedule!"

Syd mumbles something, but from his place across the table, Ray doesn't catch it. He's too caught up in his thoughts to really care, anyways - he never thought Syd was the type to just ditch a date without a word, but the nonchalant attitude that his twin is exuding now tells Ray that he was wrong, Sydnie was absolutely the type. It makes Ray feel bad for the poor guy, because he knows without a doubt that Sydnie won't be calling him to cancel.

Then Ray gets an idea, one that he'll probably regret one day soon. He smiles into his spaghetti, having already decided: he'll go meet the guy that Sydnie is supposed to be meeting and apologize for him.

PRESENT

Except that's not how things went, not at all. When he'd entered Jitters and realized that the man his brother was supposed to meet was none other than Leonard Snart, the mayor of Central City's older brother, his brain had mostly went blank, because he'd always thought Leonard was one of the most handsome men that inhabited Central City.

So maybe he'd sat down, and maybe he forgot to introduce himself, and maybe he and Leonard had went on several dates since then, and maybe Leonard still thought the he was actually Sydnie. Oops? He knew that he should probably apologize and tell Leonard the truth, but he's also afraid of what will happen if Leonard learns he's actually been dating a well known criminal this entire time. It's that fear that keeps him from telling Leonard the truth.

Until tonight, that is.

At 7 o'clock precisely, Ray shows up outside the nearest movie theater and finds Leonard standing there waiting for him. When their gazes meet, they both smile brightly as they move towards each other. As soon as they're close enough, Leonard doesn't hesitate to move in and give Ray a light kiss on the lips. It has Ray's stomach erupting in butterflies, though he'll never admit it, not even at gun point.

"Hello, Syd. You're looking gorgeous tonight," Leonard greets him, lacing their fingers together and leading him towards the doors.

"Not nearly as gorgeous as you, Leonard," Ray responds, carefully ignoring the pang of guilt he feels in his chest when Leonard refers to him as Syd.

"Please, flattery will get you everywhere," Len teases back smoothly. Ray loves this part the best, the banter that flows so easily between the two of them. "You want popcorn or candy? I can't decide."

"Oh, I know it will," he drawls, winking playfully at Len and squeezing his hand lightly. His mouth opens, ready to respond, when he's cut off by a voice.

"Ray! Ray, over here!" it calls. Ray turns, the butterflies in his stomach dying in his stomach, replaced in an instance by pure dread, because that voice belongs to Sara Lance, one of his closest friends. She's one of the few people in the world that can tell him and Sydnie apart, and he knows he's officially screwed. She approaches them quickly, her lips tilted up in a friendly smile. "How you doin', Ray? Haven't seen you in a few weeks."

"I, um, Ray? I'm Sydnie, Sara," he tries desperately, but she narrows her eyes almost immediately and he knows she's most definitely not going to fall for it.

"Raymond, I've known you and Sydnie since we were kids. I'm not falling for it, but nice try."

"Um, I'm sorry, but what's going on?" Leonard finally pipes up, a confused expression on his face that Ray absolutely refuses to describe as adorable. Nu-uh, it's not adorable at all, not even a little bit.

Checking back into reality, Ray sends a glare at Sara and pulls Leonard over to the side of the room, hoping Sara will get the hint to leave them alone for now. He has to pause for a second, trying to figure out how to word the situation as nicely as possible.

"Well, you see. The thing is," he starts, then stops for another moment. "I'm not Sydnie. My name is really Raymond, and I'm sort of Sydnie's twin brother? Not sort of, I _am_ Sydnie's twin brother. See, he said at dinner one night that he had a blind date the next night that he was going to ditch, and I couldn't let him just do that! _I'm_ supposed to be the bad twin, not him. Originally, I was just going to show up and apologize for him not being there, but then you were really cute and we hit it off so good and I didn't know how to tell you that I really wasn't him? I'm sorry! I didn't mean to let it go on this long, I just--."

He's cut off for the second time that night, but instead of by words, it's by a pair of lips. It takes him a second to realize that Leonard is kissing him and by the time his brain in functioning enough for him to start kissing back, Leonard is already pulling away. Ray is surprised to see that the other man is smiling.

"I'm not mad at you, if that's what you think. Sure, you should have told me who you really were from the beginning, but it's really not a big deal. As long as it's been you on all of our dates, everything is just fine."

"It's definitely been me on all of the dates, I promise!" Ray rushes to reassure. "I know I should have told you, but I was scared that you'd have a bad reaction and never want to see me again, and I really like you."

"I really like you too, _Raymond_ ," Leonard states, putting emphasis on the name. It has Ray's stomach once again erupting in butterflies. "So how about I changed your name in my phone, and then we continue this date as originally planned?"

"That... sounds perfect, actually," Ray agrees, taking Len's hand in his once again. "Who knows, maybe this will be a great story to tell our grandchildren one day."

It is. Their grandchildren don't stop laughing for days.

**Author's Note:**

> as always, my tumblr is [coldsatom](http://coldsatom.tumblr.com/)! i also post all these fics on there
> 
> special shout out to [spectrasydniescope](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Spectrasydniescope/) / [raypalmersnart](http://raypalmersnart.tumblr.com/), who is my best friend and the reason i changed the spelling of sydney's name (although, they haven't actually showed the spelling of it in canon, so!!)


End file.
